Understanding Mechanisms of Health Behavior Change

University of Colorado Boulder (CU)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Incentives; Overweight and Obesity; Diet Modification

Treatments: Behavioral: delayed lump sum monetary incentives; Behavioral: self-monitoring; Behavioral: daily monetary incentives

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03192254

16-0700

Details and patient eligibility

About

This research seeks to examine psychological factors that may impact relationship between incentives and health behavior engagement, specifically fruit and vegetable consumption. Additionally, it will compare the impact of two different incentive schedules on behavior engagement, one providing immediate rewards (i.e. rewards received on a daily basis) and another providing delayed rewards (i.e. rewards received at the end of the study period), with a control condition in which no rewards are offered. Study participants will provide reports of their fruit and vegetable consumption each day for three weeks, and in the two incentive conditions, they will receive small monetary rewards for their fruit and vegetable consumption. Following the three week reporting and reward period, participants will complete two additional assessments, measuring psychological constructs and behavior engagement following the cessation of rewards. The study will also examine how cognitive and anthropomorphic factors may contribute to intervention response and the effects on psychological constructs.

Enrollment: 68 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Consume fewer than 3 servings/day of fruits and vegetables
• Daily access to internet for 3 weeks following baseline session
• Have or are willing to create an account on PayPal
• BMI greater than or equal to 25, from self-reported height and weight

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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68 participants in 3 patient groups

Self-Monitoring Control

Active Comparator group

Description:

Daily tracking of fruit and vegetable consumption

Treatment:

Behavioral: self-monitoring

Daily Incentives

Experimental group

Description:

Incentives for fruit and vegetable consumption delivered daily

Treatment:

Behavioral: daily monetary incentives

Behavioral: self-monitoring

Delayed Lump Sum Incentives

Experimental group

Description:

Incentives for fruit and vegetable consumption delivered in a lump sum at the end of the intervention

Treatment:

Behavioral: delayed lump sum monetary incentives

Behavioral: self-monitoring